Viral Crowdfunding Tweet Leaves Student with $200,000 Commitment

They say that no good deed goes unpunished, but luckily this girl is getting some help.

'Tis the season of giving and I believe we all wish we could do a little bit more. Even though "ever little bit counts" it never feels like enough. I'm thinking this girl felt the same way when she clicked "Tweet" on a recent crowdfunding effort.

To give you some backstory, Twitter user @danni_messina, a student at Washington State University, was recently inspired over the Thanksgiving holiday to help out St. Jude. She had a friend who had spent that time in the hospital with a sick family member. The thought of kids and their families being in the hospital instead of at home with loved ones on such days like Thanksgiving, drove Danni to take action.

The message was simple... For ever retweet, she would donate 50 cents to St. Jude Research Hospital, and for every favorite, she would donate 25 cents. With less than 2,000 followers on Twitter she believed that she could cover the amount that resulted from her campaign. Danni was prepared to donate $1,000 when it was all said and done. But social media did what social media does best...

The tweet went viral.

After more than 200,000 retweets and 450,000 favorites, Danni found herself with a commitment of more than $200,000. I don't know about you, but I didn't have that kind of cash while in college or even now, for that matter. To say that she "owes" this amount is a bit melodramatic, but rather than blow things off and just donate the $1,000 she planned for, Dannie is doing something about it.

She has since started a GoFundMe page to cover her commitment and the entire thing has turned into a beautiful community project. She asked for $50,000 in donations. When I last checked, she was already closing in on $100,000... in less than a week.